Where are the Black musicians in the country's largest orchestras?
In 2014, a study found that only 1.4% of orchestra musicians were Black. In 2022, it's hard to know if that number is better or worse.
Music & Culture
Yeah Yeah Yeahs' 'Cool It Down' is an exhilarating yet unhurried return
The band's first new record in nine years confronts environmental ruin and pandemic-era isolation, but ends at a vantage of hope — one that sounds like it took all the intervening time to reach.
LCD Soundsystem, 'new body rhumba'
It's no crime for a song to be anodyne, but LCD Soundsystem made a career out of barely skirting that line.
Jessie Reyez: Tiny Desk Concert
The Colombian-Canadian singer rearranges tracks from her new album and performs them with the assuredness of a true reina harnessing her vulnerability on stage.
Harry Styles song, 'As It Was,' breaks Billboard record
The Harry Styles song has managed to stay No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 15 weeks. That's a feat topped by only three other songs in history.
Heat Check Round-Up: Stormzy, GloRilla and Cardi B, SiR and more
This week's Heat Check playlist gathers artists from across the spectrum: a grime king retaking his throne, Cardi B signal boosting the summer's most exciting newcomer, risers and covert stars.
Ginger Root's Cameron Lew wants his new EP to showcase city pop as familiar yet fresh
NPR's Juana Summers talks with Cameron Lew of the band Ginger Root about his new EP Nisemono and the vintage Japanese pop that inspires his sound.
Rapper Coolio, who helped to shape hip-hop, has died at 59
Grammy-winning rapper, producer and actor Coolio has died at age 59. He was best-known for hits "Fantastic Voyage" and "Gangsta's Paradise."
Lizzo performs on rarely-played James Madison glass flute at DC concert
Pop artist Lizzo stunned audiences with her performance Tuesday on a historic glass flute once owned by James Madison. The flute is currently housed in the Library of Congress.
Youngbloods: Saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins
We close out our Youngbloods series with saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins, who takes us into the relationship between his faith and his compositions.